All in a small bag, cabin-sized Getty packaging only to realize that you can not get into this huge guide does not have to mean that cultural and miss amazing places when on vacation. Whether you are carrying a smart phone or tablet, there are a lot of applications and services to help light travels sensational and still finds much. In fact, we'd go so far as to say it is better with these technological alternatives that grotty pages of a tome out of date. Click on the first picture and tell you what you need to turn your phone or tablet into a fellow traveler on-the-know.

The Bing Travel Phone Windows application makes it easy to search, research and finally reserve potential holiday destinations. Hotel reviews and listings are plentiful, plus there are a lot of both professional photos and user generated Trip to navigate. You can also find details of restaurants and nearby attractions, as well as Look-up local weather conditions so that you know exactly what to pack. You can also set the details of your future flights largely the same line as Windows 8 counterpart application - put it in a prominent, easy to view while you wait. The only feature that we find missing is the magnificent panoramic imagery putting bigger, wider and tablet PC displays useful. But it is not enough to forgive this minor shortcoming.

This trip produces beautiful implementation guides that are designed with tablets and smartphones in mind. Covering the cities of Denver to Reykjavik and Buenos Aires to Nairobi, each guide is written by a local person, offering three hours or three days excursions. A tab content means you can navigate to specific tips while playing the maps icon serves an overview of each destination, with fixed points of interest and easy to find. Each guide costs $ 10 (7 €), with writers to achieve a 50% reduction. They are a great way to get local information without equal, without having to search websites and recommendation tools.

The Big G’s translation app is superb and just keeps getting better. It can slip easily between 70 languages and even works offline so you don’t need to pay expensive roaming fees or find wi-fi whenever you’re in a linguistic tight spot. Speak into it and it’ll use your phone’s speaker to broadcast your question in the native language. Our favourite feature, though, is the menu translation tool. Take a snap and it’ll suss out what’s being served up, saving you the embarrassment of accidentally ordering puffer fish or pig's intestines.

XE’s currency converter app works on every mobile platform, so you can suss out whether you’re getting a good deal no matter what device you’re packing. There are live rates for every world currency, as well as a converter tool so you can see what you should be getting in return for your hard-earned cash. It's particularly handy if you’re dealing with currencies you wouldn’t normally keep an eye on (hello, Burmese kyat) or if you’re changing money in popular spots where dealers often offer poor rates

If you can not bear to be without a Lonely Planet guide to confident, then fear not. The renowned travel company has a lot of great e-books available on Apple iBooks platform, so you can easily scroll through your iPad or iPhone anywhere. The pages are linked, so you can leverage to reach other points in the book that relate to the pages you are reading. Titles available are small, easily digestible read as' Culture Vulture Britain as well as full-on guide countries, including the major destinations such as Thailand. It is perfect for the purists books.